White
by Irelys
Summary: Ul lives on, not just in the -molten- ice from her final battle, but also in her daughters. Yes, daughters.  Follow Ulrii -OC-, Ul's second daughter as she discovers the world of Fairy tail.  Pairings: GrayxOC, LyonxOC, more... T for language -for now-
1. Prologue

Hi there, this is my very very first fic ... ever!  
>It has not been beta'ed, so I apologize in advance for any grammar or spelling errors.<br>Grammar-nazi's, spare me! I'm not a native English speaker, but I'm trying my very best though!

Anyway... About this story: It's set in a slightly AU, only small differences though (incl. a new character and Lyon joins FT after being defeated on Galuna Island)  
>The story resolves around an OC I've created. <span>imgur. com 5wqBH. png (remove the spaces)  
>Pairings include: GrayxOC, LyonxOC, and more ^^<p>

Another note: I'll be using Japanese words/expressions frequently in stead of English ones (don't worry, i'll add translations)  
>Why? First off, I'm quite interested in the Japanese language. By watching such an excessive amount of anime, I tend to pick up words easily.<br>Secondly, by using Japanese expressions I feel the story leans more towards the anime on which it's based... Idk, some English expressions almost feel OOC ^.^'  
>And thirdly, it just sounds kick-ass! x3<p>

* * *

><p><span>Prologue<span>

.

_My dear Ulrii,_

_I'm glad to hear you managed to peacefully settle down in Oak town. How is your father doing? you have no idea how much I miss you, my dear, it hurts me so much I have lost you as well._

_I've investigated the symptoms of your father's illness. There are some herbs I know of that could help lighten the pain for him, though they cannot cure him. I've attached some pages from my herbal encyclopedia, please study them thoroughly and show them to the local doctors. Unfortunately all these herbs grow only in the snowy mountains up North, but maybe you can find a travelling merchant who sells them in Oak town._

_ This is all I can do to help your father, aside from praying. I hope, with all my heart, he'll recover._

_._

The little girl took the remaining pieces of paper from the envelope and took a quick look at the contents. There were detailed drawings, descriptions and instructions on three different kinds of herbs. Just as her mother wrote, she won't find these growing anyplace near, for every description stated the plants only grew around Mt. Hakobe.  
>With a small sigh she put the papers back in the envelope and continued reading her letter.<p>

.

_I've been travelling around for a few weeks with Lyon now, he's a great student. He's very spirited and catches on quickly, I just hope he doesn't get his hopes up too much or grow arrogant. He says his current wish is to meet you someday and find out which one of you is the strongest ice mage, hahaha._

_Since a few days, a new member has been added to our little party. We've picked up a 10-year old boy from a village that was destroyed by Deloria. His name is Gray and he kind of resembles you, quite stubborn and reckless. I'm sure you two would get along well, if you would have the chance to meet._

_I've started training him as well, as my second pupil. He's having more troubled to catch on than Lyon. I believe this is because in his mind, he's only focused on taking revenge on Deliora. He's restless and still grieving…I call it his darkness. Deliora is his darkness._

_I bet he would feel a lot better if he had a good friend to replace his sadness. Lyon is having some troubles getting along with him… Maybe Gray needs a friend like you, a cheerful and energetic child to clear the darkness in him. If Deliora is kuro (black), I guess that would make you shiro(white)…_

_On another note, I hope you've been able to keep up your training, despite moving all the way to Oak town. I guess the climate there is a lot warmer than back here, up North, so I guess stripping… I mean, becoming one with the cold is out of the question now. Still, don't let the warm sunshine get to you too much! I've written the instructions for your next exercise on the back of this letter, please read them carefully and try out this new move. Let me know how it went and don't forget the usual "homework" I gave you! Once you get the hang of this move, you can add 10 of these to the list._

_Good luck, my dearest. Work hard, I know you can and I'm sure we'll meet again one day.  
>My most treasured wish is to hold you in my arms once more, my dear Ulrii. <em>

_Love,  
>your caring mother, Ul.<em>

_._

She tried to blink away the tears that were already starting to well in her eyes while hugging the piece of paper, hoping to sense some of her mother's warmth left in the written letter. She brought the paper closer to her nose and inhaled deeply. Maybe it was just her imagination, but she could swear she caught a piece of Ul's minty perfume.

At that point, her barrier broke… little sobs floated through the room and thick tears rolled down her cheeks while she muttered: "M-mom…"  
><em>"I promised to be strong…"<em> She thought to herself._ "But even strong girls can give into their weakness once in a while…"_  
>"R-right, mom?", She continued out loud. The child lifted her head to stare out of the window, to see the clear blue sky stretch out above her new house, to see wooly white clouds drift by carelessly…<p>

The clouds reminded her of the snow, of her home town… Her mind wandered back to those memories. A few minutes past while she sat there, on the wooden floor in the middle of her new bedroom. "Enough crying!" She suddenly told herself and used her sleeves to wipe the remaining tears from her face. She turned around her letter and read the words out loud: "Ice make… shield?"

She continued to read the instructions and studied the doodles her mother made to show the pose needed to perform this move. After re-reading the back a few times, she folded the letter and put it in her pocket. Upon which she exited her room, telling her father she would go out for a walk and explore the town some more. A lie, of course… She didn't explore Oak town even one bit, she didn't even like the place... The sun was always shining way too bright, always people running around making an awful lot of racket, chatting, laughing, fighting, birds chirping, leaves rustling, dogs barking... Hell, even their new house would make noise if you just opened a door or walked the stairs... as if it all was just to torment her...  
>She just ran in a straight line towards the forest to find a secluded spot and practice the magic her mother taught her through her letters.<p>

...

* * *

><p>Kinda short for a beginning I guess, but writing is a lot more difficult than I expected ^.^'<p>

Anyway, please let me know what you think of my writings thusfar.  
>I very much appreciate (usefull) criticism (feel free to pm it to me), reviews and encouragement. A volunteer beta-reader would be a dream come true as well x3<p> 


	2. Chapter 1

Again, this story has not been beta'ed  
>*takes a deep bow*<br>Sorry in advance for grammar/spelling errors!

Note: The story takes place in the beginning of the series, before the Galuna Arc

* * *

><p><span>Magnolia – Lucy's house<span>

"Lucy! Lucy! Wake up!"

She felt little cat-like paws land on her face, trying to shake her out of her slumber. With an annoyed grunt she rolled away from the source of the early disturbance, pulling her blanket over her head and causing Happy, who was standing on her bedsheets, to be swept off his feet.

"Gnnhhggoaway…" She muttered from under her bedsheet shelter. "It's way too early, I wanna sleep…"

Natsu shot a mischievous glance towards Gray, who somewhere in the process of breaking into Lucy's house miraculously lost his shirt… to nobody's surprise. The ice mage didn't have to think twice to know what Natsu ment with that smirk. A slightly evil grin grew on Gray's face, while suspicious dark shadows started forming behind his back.

If he had any, Happy have surely peed his pants on the spot. "G-Gray… s-s-scary!"  
>His hand rose, emitting an icy blue-white aura. The little creature quickly decided to take shelter behind Natsu's back when Gray took a slow step forward, towards his victim.<p>

3… 2... 1…

"K Y A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A H ! ! ! ! ! !"

.

Fairy tail guild

Every guild member immediately ceased doing whatever the they were doing the moment they heard a high pitched noise coming from the south part of town.

Mirajane wore a worried expression on her face. "What could that sound have been?"

"I'm sure it's nothing or importance…" Master Makarov reassured her, placing his beer cup back to his lips only to engulf its contents in one gulp.

The entire guild, always faithfully trusting master's decisions, shrugged and continued their daily activities.

.

Magnolia – Lucy's house

Gray's unfortunate face was on the receiving end of Lucy's infamous 'Lucy kick'.

"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO THAT FOR! ? ? ?" She yelled, while holding Gray pinned to the floor with her foot on his face.

"Yuu dudn't wunnu wuke up" He tried to speak, which was rather difficult with lucy's foot crushing his face to the floor, limiting his mouth's movement.

"Oi Lucy, let's go on a mission today!" Natsu happily exclaimed, moving his face uncomfortably close to hers. Which caused her to back of instantly and fall over, releasing Gray from Lucy's foot trap while she flopped down on the bed behind her.

"Yeah Lucy, let's do a job today!" Happy repeated, retreating from his hiding place as if nothing happened.

"We've been sitting around and doing nothing for almost a week now, I'm bored" Natsu explained. "And besides… don't you need to earn some money to pay your rent this month?"

Upon this remark Lucy froze. "C-c-crap!"

"Crab?" Happy wondered, holding out a plate with a whole cooked crab on it at random. (No one even wonders where he got it in the first place)

"Ohhh FOOD!" Natsu's nose was drawn by the scent of the yummy dish and was already approaching the delicatesse with grabby hands.

"My rent! You're right! We have to go on a job… like NOW!" Lucy panicked. She grabbed Natsu by his vest, forcing him away from his snack, and started shaking him thoroughly.

"I got ignored..." Happy stated, taking a theatric pose.

"Yosh, let's go!" Gray finally got up from the ground, rubbing his head in the hope it would easy up the pain left by Lucy's earlier attack or at least erase a bit of the giant footprint that was covering half of his face.

.

Fairy tail guild

"YO! FAIRY TAIL NO MINA! _(yo, everybody of fairy tail)_" Natsu greeted the guild, as per usual, by kicking open the front door with his foot and yelling at the top of his lungs.

Successfully catching the entire guild's attention, all heads were turned in the direction of Natsu, Happy, Lucy and Gray. Most guild members waved and/or bade them a good morning.

"Oi Gray, what happened to your face?" Jet and Droy asked in union, both pointing to their own faces to stress the meaning of their question.

Gray didn't answer them, but instead he threw a dark glare in Lucy's direction. Lucy only pouted, recalling the unpleasant wake-up call she received that very morning.

"Don't tell me you've been stepped on… by Lucy of all people?" The duo was surrounding Gray now, Jet on the left and Droy on the right, prodding him with their elbows.

"What's that supposed to mean! ? ?" Lucy barked.

"NO WAY! A real MAN would never be stepped on! Not by a woman!" Elfman appeared practically out of nowhere behind Gray, taking his side in this morning's brawl.

"It's true, though!" Natsu interrupted. This statement made Gray receive a bunch of looks from his fellow guild members, both petty looks from the compassionate girls as well as mischievous grins from the guys.

Elfman kneeled down in defeat. "H-how… how could a man…"

"There, there… Elfman. There's nothing unmanly to being stepped on by a woman" Mirajane tried to cheer him up.

Her brother lifted his head, to face his sister with tears of joy starting to well in his eyes. "Arigato, nee-chan!" _(Thank you, sister)_

"In fact…" She continued, smiling her trademark smile. "I think it's kind of romantic!"

"WHAT! ? ?" Gray and Lucy cried in unison.

.

Meanwhile Natsu was already scanning the request board, but none of the missions seemed to catch his eye. It was already 10 a.m. after all, all the good request were probably already taken. He let out a little sigh before calling his friends over to help pick out a job.

Lucy and Happy joined him in searching for a request that fits them, without success. Gray stood next to them, silently staring to one single piece of paper. He didn't even know what the request exactly contained, for he hadn't read it actually. His eyes were transfixed on the word "Mt. Hakobe" while in his mind a flashback movie was playing about his childhood, when he still lived in the mountains. Sometimes he would kind of miss the snow. Maybe…

"Guys…" Gray hesitated a bit. "Since we can't really make up our minds, how about we do this one?"  
>He pointed to the paper he'd been gazing at for a few minutes now.<p>

"Whoa, monsters! Nice choice, Gray!" Natsu exclaimed. "I'm already getting fired up!"

"What! Mt. Hakobe? No way I'm going back up there, it's waaaaay too cold for a delicate young girl in bloom."

"Oh, good idea, Lucy! We could ask Erza to come with us" Happy stated.

"I was talking about ME!" She was too easy to bait sometimes, though Happy was completely oblivious to his own jokes.

"What are YOU guys doing?" A voice behind them sent chills down all four of their spines.

"Erza, what are you doing here. Weren't you on a mission?" Happy snapped out of his scared state almost immediately and reverted back to his cheerful self.

"I just got back here, I thought I heard my name?" Erza stated calmly.

"That's right!" Natsu announced. "We're going on a mission, wanna join us, Erza?"

"Show me the mission" Her face expression stuck in poker face-mode, she raised her hand, asking to see the request.

"A wyvern problem on Mt. Hakobe?" She read the mission out loud.

"Noooooooo!" Lucy cried out. "I don't wanna gooooooo!"

"But Lucy, take a look at this reward" Natsu snatched the paper out of Erza's hands and pointed to the giant "800 000 jewels" on the bottom of the page.  
>The redhead wasn't finished reading the mission details and was definitely not happy with the request being taken from her hands, so she planted her armored fist in Natsu's head, K.O.-ing him in an instant.<p>

"Whooaah! 800 000 jewels! If we split this I can pay my rent for almost 3 months!" Lucy had her hands on the mission description now, before Erza even had the chance to take it again from Natsu.  
>Again Erza made an attempt to get the piece of paper back in her possession. Failed again… Gray swooped it away right in front of her nose to take another glance at the picture of the mountain and the words "Mt. Hakobe".<p>

"It's gonna be nice to see the mountains again" He said, wearing a nostalgic smile on his face.  
>Completely unprepared, Erza's fist connected with his face as well, causing Gray to fall back and send the mission paper flying.<p>

Erza remained her cool and snatched the piece of paper in mid-air to read the rest of the mission detailes. It only took her a minute to fully read the mission description.

"Very well, we'll take this mission." she turned around and smiled, only to find her team completely knocked out on the floor.

… How did this even happen?

...

* * *

><p>I hope my writing is at least enjoyable to read, feedback and reviews are very welcome! (Don't hold back!)<p> 


	3. Chapter 2

Magnolia – Train station

It took Fairy Tail's strongest team about half an hour to recover from Erza's punches. With everyone alive and conscious the gang set out for the train station. Natsu and Happy were leading the way, energetically chirping away about whatever amazing monsters they'd get to subdue on this mission.

Lucy was sulking behind them; Erza didn't give her the time to change into a more winter-proof attire. She already started to shiver by thinking of the freezing temperatures, recalling her last trip to Mt. Hakobe when they rescued Macao from that Vulcan ape.

She shot Erza an evil glare which tried to say "Why do you get to pack such an excessive amount of bags filled with stuff we most likely won't even be needing, while you didn't even let me pick up a winter coat and a scarf?".

Erza, ever so oblivious to subtle signs in social matters, probably didn't even notice Lucy looking her way. Instead she turned her head towards Gray, who instinctively raised his arms in order to protect his already injured face from any more damage.

The moment they arrived at the station, Natsu felt his breakfast stirring to life in his stomach by the sight of the many trains waiting to hit the road.

"This way." Erza stated coolly and started walking towards a rather shabby looking specimen.

'_There was no way that pathetic excuse of a train would run anywhere near smoothly on its tracks.'_ Natsu thought to himself while his legs already started to lose the courage to support his body.

As the group approached the train, they were stopped by a puny young man acting as a railway guard.

"I-I'm sorry, the train to Pinoki Town has been cancelled, there's no point in boarding." he told them.

"What!" Everybody but Lucy exclaimed.

"Why?" Erza, impatient as ever, already raised her voice.

"E-e-ehm…" the young man stammered.

"I demand to know what's going on!" By now her gaze has darkened, intimidating the unfortunate guard even further.

"E-ehm, y-you see… T-the train rails are damaged at Glacier's Pass, right before Pinoki Town. N-no train can pass there u-until the tracks are r-r-restored." He managed to get out.

"Naruhodo. _(I see.)_" Ezra nodded thoughtfully.

At this point both Lucy and Natsu breathed a sigh of relief.

"So that means we're walking!" Natsu suggested and already started walking towards the exit of the station without waiting for any replies.

"No, we're not." Erza grabbed him quickly by his scarf, choking him a little. "There's another way to get there."

.

Somewhere between Magnolia and Pinoki Town

"Hold it in, Natsu!" Happy tried to console his nauseous friend.

"Don't you dare to vomit on or anywhere near me, flame head!" Gray scolded.

Natsu could only reply with muffled gag sounds, as he pressed his hands to his mouth as a final barrier to keep his breakfast where it belonged, in his stomach.

"KYA! Not on my new shoes!" Lucy yelled, instinctively pushing his face as far away from her as possible.

"Teme _(you bastard)_, get away from me!" Gray yelled

"Natsuuuuu!" Lucy shrieked.

Erza, sitting in the front seat outside the carriage, could only vaguely hear the racket her team was making inside the vehicle. She tried to focus on the road before her, which proved difficult for her vision was starting to blur.

At this point Natsu's face showed his nausea was close to reaching its climax.

"Gambate, Natsu! _(Try your best, Natsu!)_" Happy tried to cheer him on.

"Ugh… I think it's getting worse…" Lucy worried, while shoving herself in a corner as far away from Natsu as possible.

"You're right…" Gray claimed. "The road is getting worse as well…"

"Erza! Slow down, will you? Natsu can't take it anymore!" He yelled through the window. When he glanced outside, he noticed the vehicle was no longer following the road. As the vehicle kept wobbling, he saw the road they were taking disappearing from his sight.

He tried calling again. "Erza! What are you doing? We're off the r-"

CRASH!

.

Somewhere between Magnolia and Pinoki Town (some time later)

"Ugghhnn… Wha… What happened?" Natsu muttered. He opened his eyes, but his vision remained black. Various parts of his body were hurting and he felt cold creeping up his skin. He moved, with a little effort, his hand to his forehead. A couple of minutes passed before the clouds in his mind started clearing up and he saw white… snow?

His lower body was buried under quite a large pile of snow. After he dug himself out, he took a look around. How did he got here? Where are the others? … Others? Happy! Lucy! Gray! His memory was booting. And Erza! Then it hit him. Erza! She was driving the magical four-wheeler. Wait, where did that thing go?

He quickly turned around when the thought came to him: it was buried under this pile of snow. He yelled out the others' names and started digging at random places. He heard a little rustle to his left and saw something blue sticking out of the snow. Happy! He took hold of it and started yanking to pull the cat creature out.

"Whaaa! That hurts!" Happy shouted when his head popped out of the snow at last.

"Happy! Daijobu? _(Are you okay)_" Natsu exclaimed while hugging his little friend.

"A-aye…" He replied, with a bit of effort. "N-Natsu… What happened?"

"I don't know. I only remember us leaving Magnolia with the magical carriage and now we're here." Natsu frowned.

"Aye… I remember it now! We were driving and you were sick. Then the cart suddenly started shaking and then there was a loud noise and then everything was black." Happy explained.

"Hmm… So we crashed. We better find the others first." Natsu said and started to look.

Both of them were startled when a pale hand popped out of the pile of snow. A sturdy body, clad in a white coat, rose from the snow. They recognized him as Gray, when his black hair popped out. When he climbed out of the cold hole, he reached back inside to drag a lean body from it as well.

"Lucy!" Happy and Natsu yelled in unison.

"She took a hit to the head, she's just unconscious. She'll be fine. Where's Erza?" Gray worried.

The three of them quickly turned their heads towards the rocks which the vehicle had collided with. Erza was driving the four-wheeler. Therefore she sat in front, outside, without anything to take the hit for her.

Gray and Natsu frantically started digging in the cold snow with their hands. Natsu yammered about the freezing temperature, Gray wasn't affected by the cold and chose to ignore him. It didn't take long before they stumbled upon long strands of scarlet hair. After a few minutes they managed to drag her body completely from the wreckage. She was bruised heavily and bled from her forehead, other than that she looked fine. Thank goodness!

It remained silent for a while, no one seemed to be in those mountains except for them. The vehicle had caught fire because of the crash, but Natsu had devoured the flames rapidly. The wreckage was smoldering a bit afterwards, sending a dark plume of smoke into the sky. After a few minutes both girls started to regain their consciousness.

"Erza! Lucy! Daijoubu? _(Are you okay?) _Are you hurt?" The boys asked.

"Nngghh… I'm fine" Lucy grunted while she tried to sit up straight.

Erza didn't speak, but her eyes gave away she was in pain. She raised her arm and reached for her forehead. When she felt a warm liquid touch her fingertips, she looked up to her hand, intrigued by the scarlet color in which they were coated.

'_Even Titania no Erza (Erza the Titania) can be hurt by something as stupid as a car accident.' _She thought to herself and a small smile crept on her lips.

"Oi, Erza. Daijoubu? _(Are you okay?)_ What happened?" Gray asked.

"I…" She tried to gather her memories. "I guess I used up too much of my magical power and passed out…"

She sighed, she should have known better than pushing herself to the limit. After all it was a long distance from Magnolia to Pikoni town and she wasn't exactly holding back on speed as well.

"I-I'm sorry." She apologized.

"It's okay, Erza" Natsu comforted her.

"Aye! No one is hurt, that's what really matters." Happy chirped.

"We've been driving for a long time, I bet we're already close to the village" Gray stated.

"Do you guys also hear something?" Lucy wondered.

The weather in the mountains was fairly calm, though even the slightest breeze was turned into a loud whistle when it skimmed past the mountain flanks.

"Ooooi~!" a voice called out.

"You're right, I hear someth-" Natsu confirmed.

"Sssht" Gray slammed his hand over Natsu's loud mouth.

"Ooooi~! Someone there?" The voice called again.

The saw 2 figures some into sight, coming from the road they were riding on before.

"We're here!" Gray stood up and shouted back at them.

The two figures approached them, they were inhabitants of Pinoki Town, which was a little up ahead the road. The explained they saw the black fume raising in the air and decided to come take a look in case anything bad happened. Gray and Lucy told the two men how they were on their way to the village when Erza collapsed and they hit the mountain walls.

"Is every one of you alright? You, can you walk?" One man directed his question to Erza, who was visibly in the worst shape of them all.

"Theh… don't underestimate her, my friend" Natsu patted the guy on the shoulder.

Gray offered to support her, laying her arm over his shoulders. Slowly the entire group staggered back to the road they came from.

"The village is about 10 minutes that way, we'll come back for your vehicle tomorrow. It seems there's a blizzard coming up" One of the men looked up to the sky.

Everyone followed his gaze and was confused. The skies were clear, any sign of wind was but a slight breeze and even the sun was shining shyly from behind the mountain peaks. Gray on the other hand confirmed the villager's assumption. The others shot him a confounded look. He couldn't quite explain how he knew, he just… felt it somehow, it was probably something he learned when he was training with Ul.

.

Pinoki Town

The village of Pinoki was hardly worth to be called a "village". A hamlet or even a handful of houses thrown together in a mountain valley would probably be a better description. The entire town consisted of nothing more than a train station, a small but sturdy church, a picturesque little inn and a few wooden houses. There were no shops, schools, hospitals, guilds or any other functional buildings in sight. How did these people even manage to survive in such an… almost primitive environment?

The gang was led to the previously mentioned inn. It was made almost completely out of thick dark (almost black) wood, just like its surrounding buildings. The ground floor kind of remembered them of the Fairy Tail guild. Against the back wall there was a small bar and the room was filled with wooden picnic-like benches which matched the color of the building. The walls themselves were overly decorated with pictures, postcards, stuffed (fake) animals, branches of holly and Christmas lights, giving the room an incredibly cozy feeling.

A few dozen people were scattered over the place, mirthfully chattering away, most of them with a pint in their hands. However, everything went quiet as soon as the double doors slammed open and the 5 of them, accompanied by the 2 villagers entered the inn. Everyone present had turned to the door to see what's going on. As the group staggered inside, a soft buzz of voices filled the air.

"Mary!" One of the villagers supporting them addressed the chubby woman behind the bar counter. She wore a worried expression on her face and quickly put down the glasses she was drying off. She rushed from behind her counter, to check upon the strangers who were brought into her inn.

"We found these kids near the road. The smoke came from their vehicle; they had an accident and slammed it into the rock walls. I don't suppose you're willing to take care of them?" one of the Pinoki men asked her.

"Of course not, William. Oh, you poor babies. I hope none of you is injured too seriously." She grabbed hold of each one to submit them to a quick first-aid check.

"Follow me, darlings. I've got some rooms vacant upstairs. How about we'll patch you guys up and you can rest here for the night, hm?" The woman had a very nice and warm voice. If you could describe one's voice with flavors, she sounded like hot strawberry pancakes and honey.

"Linsy, sweetie, fetch mommy's first-aid kit, will you?" She yelled out when she was climbing the stairs.

"Hai~!" A child's voice called back.

"Here you go, girls." Mary opened a door on one side of the corridor while pointing to the one on the opposite side. "Boys, that one's yours."

The innkeeper motioned Erza to one of the two beds in the room. She sat down willingly while a little girl skipped into the room, holding a small, white box. She had the same auburn hair as her mother, but wore it in pigtails instead of her mother's long braid.

Carefully Mary treated Erza's major injuries. Afterwards she fetched each of them a bowl of hot water and some towels, so they could clean themselves up. The kind woman apologized deeply for the lack of running water in her inn. In fact, there wasn't any running water anywhere in Pinoki Town. Lucy was shocked… The town was way too remote to hook up to any sewage system, and even if they could the water in the pipes would freeze instantly due to the wintery climate in those mountains. The villagers would just melt and heat snow when they were in need of water.

When everyone was mended en refreshed, they returned downstairs only to find the ground floor, which was filled with laughter and homey chatter a while back, deserted.

"I see you guys are all patched up. Yokatta! _(I'm so glad!)_" Mary gave them her warm, trademark smile.

"Mary-san, where is everybody? This place was filled with people just a while ago." Lucy wondered.

"Everyone went home before the blizzard started raging. Else they would have been stuck in here." The innkeeper kept smiling.

"Blizzard?" Lucy asked. Everyone turned their heads towards the windows and were surprised to see nothing but a gray screen. "But how? I mean, an hour ago there was a clear sky and even the sun was shining!"

"Here in the mountains, the weather can change very quickly and very suddenly. No one here is surprised by it. Anyhow, you guys must be hungry. I've made some moose stew, would you care for some?" Mary asked.

*GROWL~*

As if on cue, 5 stomachs let themselves be heard simultaneously.

"Hahaha, I'll take that as a 'yes'" The innkeeper laughed and motioned towards a table that was already set for 8. "Come… join us."

The little girl from before and an older man were already seated. Mary made her way to the table with a king-size boiling pot she held up with oven mitts. She dropped the monster pot to the table and took one bowl at the time to fill it with her delicious smelling, homemade stew.

"I believe we haven't even introduced each other yet. I'll start, I'm Mary and I'm the keeper of this inn… though you've probably already deducted this." She chattered away while pouring stew into everyone's dish. "This young lady here is my lovely daughter, Linsy and the grumpy old man over there is my husband, Koya."

The 'grumpy old man' shot her a disapproving look.

"I'm only kidding, honey… you're not THAT old." She rolled her eyes a bit and winked at the man.

"And who are you?" Koya asked, sounding still a bit grumpy from Mary's last remark.

Everyone stated their names alternately.

"Are you guys real mages?" Linsy asked, her eyes were shining.

"We sure are!" Lucy smiled and showed her guild symbol on her hand. "Look!"

"Ah! I suppose you guys are here because of the request we sent?" Mary inquired.

"Exactly." Erza confirmed. "Could you tell us more about problem this village is having with these monsters?"

"How about we talk about that in the morning and for now, we'll just eat and have a good time?" Mary suggested. "It's already 8 p.m. and I bet you guys are getting tired soon. We'll keep the monster-hunting for tomorrow morning."

"Yosh! I'm getting all fired up!" Natsu sprang up from his seat, his fists sprouting fire.

He was hit instantly in the head by a large ice-cube, making him lose his balance and fall over on his back.

"The lady just said we'll wait 'til morning, baka!" Gray grunted.

"Oh yeah, you want to have a go at it, droopy eyes!" Natsu regained his composure.

"You're deliberately trying to piss me off, squinty eyes!" Gray replied.

*CLANG!*

"Haven't I told you two to get along?" Erza once again hit both of them square in the face with her armored fists.

"A-aye" They whimpered in unison.

The innkeeper's family and Lucy just sweat dropped and decided to pretend nothing happened. The rest of the night passed without any more incidents. Now their stomachs were filled Mary's yummy stew, fatigue overwhelmed the gang and they decided to tuck in for the night.

The blizzard outside raged on…

...

* * *

><p>Whoa! Getting reviews = AWESOME! (more~! x3)<p>

Also I'd like to give Alicelouise a very big hug for volunteering as a beta'er! Thank you, darling!

My OC will be introduced in the next chapter  
>If you're interested, I've made a concept designcharacter sheet on her: i. imgur. com/ yc3BV. png (remove the spaces)  
>(The other girl in the top left sketch is my friend's OC, who will also be featured in this story)<p> 


	4. Chapter 3

Pinoki Town – Mary's inn

Lucy let out a little grunt when she was waking up. She tried to open her eyes slightly, but immediately pinched her eyelids back together. The light in the room was way too bright so she decided to shield herself against it by pulling her covers over her head, leaving her feet uncovered. From outside her room she heard some muffled voices talking… no, shouting.

"_Ugh… Those two! Fighting this time in the morning already!" _she thought to herself. She curled up into a fetal position to bring her feet back into the warmth of the blankets, meanwhile she held her hands over her ears to try and make herself deaf to the guy's bickering. It didn't take long until magic incantations and the unmistakable sound of objects breaking joined into Natsu and Gray's morning brawl.

These sounds immediately woke both Lucy and Erza from their slumber. They shot each other a quick glance. Lucy's face was shocked and worried, the redhead's expression was 100% anger. They dashed out of their beds into the hallway. They didn't even have to enter the boy's room to see what was going on, because their bedroom door had already fallen victim to their violence. Other damage included one of the beds, the window, the porcelain washing bowl and a wooden chair.

"What do you mean _I_ keep you up all night, have you listened to your own snoring?" Gray exclaimed while dodging a piece of the wooden desk that was flying towards him. "A passing hurricane would sound like a lullaby next to you!" He continued.

"The night would have passed much more peacefully if you didn't recite your entire childhood when you sleep!" Natsu replied loudly, already picking up his next projectile.

"What the hell do you mean by that?" Gray aimed a large chunk of ice at the dragon slayer's head.

"You were constantly whining to some Ul-person! _Ul! I'm begging you, stop this! I'll do whatever you say from now on! Ul~!_" He imitated with a high pitched voice.

The ice mage came to an abrupt stop. He lowered his head and clenched his fists, while turning away from Natsu. The pink haired youth was taken by surprise to see his 'friend' like this. He was expecting any kind of violent reaction, more ice or pieces of furniture flying his way or a punch in his stomach. He must have hit a very sensitive spot there.

"Oi, Gray…" Natsu spoke softly, taking a hesitant step forward. Even though he would deny it, he was actually worrying about his partner.

"GET AWAY FROM ME!" Gray raged, emitting a vast amount of ice in every direction.

At this point Erza decided to intervene. She dashed into the room, slapping both of them hard on the cheeks.

"What on earth do you think you are doing! Look at this damage! How are you going to explain this to the innkeeper? Do you two ever think before you act?" she preached away…

"Oh my… What happened here?" The redhead was interrupted by a worried innkeeper.

"We are so, so, so, soooo sorry, Mary-san!" Lucy immediately started apologizing, clapping her hands together and bowing repeatedly.

"It's all Natsu and Gray's fault!" Happy blabbed.

"Traitor!" Natsu shot him an angry glare.

"Mary-san, we are truly sorry for what happened to your room. It doesn't matter who's responsible, we'll make sure to pay for the damage and restore this room as much as possible." Erza stated coolly.

"Oh, don't worry about that. We'll have this mess fixed in a jiffy." Mary smiled.

"Huh!" The entire gang jaw-dropped.

"And about payment, solving our wyvern problem is already payment enough. This village was already able to save up 800 000 jewels for our request, so we won't go nitpicking over a minor thing like this." The innkeeper explained… still smiling.

"Minor thing? Mary-san, this room is completely demolished!" Lucy was confused.

"Don't worry about it, I'm sure Shiro-san will be able to fix this mess in no time. Now hurry up and get dressed, I've got breakfast ready for you guys." Mary reassured them and made her way back to the ground floor, leaving the 5 of them flabbergasted in the middle of the hallway.

Erza snapped out of the confusing trance first, only to scold her boys some more. "I don't think you two realize how lucky you are by getting away with this. Mary-san may go easy on you two, but I surely won't! Just wait until I'll Master know about this incident, you two are in for a severe punishment!"

"It's strange how Mary-san didn't seem to mind any of this. I mean, you two really did some serious damage to your room. This Shiro person might be a good repairer, but it's still gonna take him a serious amount of time to fix all this… not to mention how much he'll charge for the repairs." Lucy noticed.

"Aye!" Happy confirmed.

"They must be seriously troubled by these wyverns if she's willing to overlook this entire issue like that. We better finish this job quickly and thoroughly and more important without smashing anything else anymore." Erza concluded.

*GROWL~*

Natsu's stomach needed some attention…

"Mary-san is waiting downstairs for us, let's get dressed quickly." Erza ordered. Before turning around and heading back to her room she shot another you-two-better-behave-or-else glare at Natsu and Gray.

Within 20 minutes the gang reassembled on the ground floor. Mary led them to a table in the corner which was filled with way too much food. Their eyes were already feasting on the deliciously looking dishes. There were syrup pancakes, at least 3 kinds of cereals, little baguettes, a wide variety of fruit, croissants and other kinds of pastry which they've never seen before.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Dig in!" Mary suggested while she placed one last scale of chocolate covered puff pastry on the already filled breakfast table.

She didn't have to say that twice! The Fairy Tale mages quickly took their seats and started to fill their stomachs with all the goodies the innkeeper had prepared for them. There was way too much to eat for everyone to even get a taste every kind of food on the table, except for Natsu of course. The living 'garbage can' had eaten almost half of the entire breakfast.

"Tsch, who knew you were such a glutton" Gray provoked him.

"What did you say?" Natsu looked up from his countless next refill.

"If you two fight one more time today, I'll make sure you're going through _that_ again as punishment!" Erza quickly intervened before the fight even started. Both of them immediately went silent, face expressions going blank with the memories of the last time they got a punishment like _that_.

"What? What's _that_?" Lucy asked nervously. Seeing both Natsu and Gray almost peeing their pants, _that_ must scary beyond words. She was getting a bit frightened herself by the mystery punishment.

"You don't want to know." Erza tried to reassure her while placing her strong hand on Lucy's shoulder. It didn't help one bit to calm Lucy down. Fortunately the boys remained silent after this last threat, though.

After Natsu finally devoured the very last bit of food on the table, Mary casually offered to bring them some more dishes as if it was completely normal for 4 teenagers and a cat to eat such an extravagant amount of food. Lucy was on her feet quickly to reject the offer. She suggested they'd help Mary by cleaning the dishes, though. After all, it was the least they could do after wrecking one of the inn's rooms.

"Good morning, William!" Mary cheered. One of the men who found the teens by their car wreck the day before entered the building.

"Are you guys ready? I thought it would be a good time to go and pick up your vehicle now." William asked the Fairy Tail mages.

"Hm? Why?" Gray asked skeptically.

"I guess it would be irresponsible to leave it in the mountains. That would be equal to littering." Erza thought out loud.

"You have a weird sense of humor, miss. To have it repaired of course!" The man smiled.

"Repair? Did you take a good look at that thing yesterday? It's impossible, the car is perte totale." Gray stated.

"It seems you haven't met Shiro-san yet, there no such thing as impossible." William winked.

"_This Shiro guy again, he must really be an awesome handyman!"_ Lucy said to herself.

"I've rounded up some men of the village to drag the wreck to the village. They're waiting outside." William continued.

"Drag it back? I knew it, you guys are insane!" Lucy laughed.

"We have a big enough sled…" The man was not amused.

"Oh…" Lucy silenced.

"I propose we split up. Natsu, you come with me to retrieve the magic four-wheeler. Lucy, Gray and Happy, you three stay here. Take a look around the village and find out what's going on with the monsters here. Ask about incidents, where the monsters come from and find out what the village might have done to anger the beasts." Erza said.

"Aye!" Happy saluted.

"Ikuzo _(Let's go)_, Natsu" Erza commanded and strode towards the exit, Natsu and the villager following.

"William, tell Shiro-san to come by the inn later. We've got something that needs fixing!" Mary called after them.

"Hai! Will do." William winked at her.

Koya, Mary's husband, shot him a dark glare from behind the counter. William caught it before he left through the door. It made him grin widely. Koya was so easy to bait.

"We better leave too. We can look for some clues around the village first." Lucy grabbed Gray by the arm. She quickly thanked Mary once again for everything before making her way to the door as well.

.

Pinoki Town (outside)

The little village was extremely peaceful, as expected of course. Almost all of the men were out with Erza and Natsu to retrieve their wrecked vehicle, the women were most likely managing their household and preparing for a new day, it was still early in the morning after all. There was a gentle breeze whistling through the snow covered valley and the sun was shining softly at the quiet scenery.

The 3 of them decided to take a walk around the village first. For a village that claimed to have a problem with aggressive wyvern monsters, there wasn't any sign of damage to the buildings… strange.

"I know they claim to have one super handyman who can repair anything, but one man can't possibly maintain this entire village by himself, granted it's a very small village, but still…" Lucy was thinking out loud.

"You're right, and where would he even get the materials to repair everything? They're cut off from the world with those broken train rails." Gray confirmed her suspicion.

"Oh right, I almost forgot about that! How about we pay a visit to the station, maybe someone there knows more about what happened with the monster that destroyed the rails." Lucy suggested.

"Oh! Lucy had a good idea!" Happy noticed.

"Of course I did! Have I ever thought of a bad idea?" Lucy praised herself.

Happy started to open his mouth, but she quickly covered his mouth to silence him.

"Don't even dare to ruin my moment, cat creature!" She growled.

.

Pinoki Town (train station)

When the trio arrived at the station, they were surprised to see so many people inside the building. In fact there were only about 10 women present, but compared to the estimated population of the town, that's quite a lot. It was even more surprising that they were all gathered on the train platform, as if they were actually waiting for a train. As the mages drew near, they could clearly hear the gossip emerging from these women.

"Did you hear, some mages from the city arrived last night."

"Really? Could they be here to take care of those monsters?"

"I sure do hope so, one of them had a go at my shed again… looking for more food, I suppose."

"Good thing it didn't go for your house like last time."

"Though all of our food is gone again… what's taking that train?"

"Oh, did you see Mary this morning? She seemed happier than usual."

"I've seen her pass by, why?"

"She told me about the mages who spent the night at the inn."

"Oh? What were they like?"

"Apparently they're just 4 teenagers and a pet cat."

"What? The city is sending out kids to deal with monsters like wyvern?"

"That's what I've told her, but she wasn't worried. They've got quite a bit of power. She told me two of them wrecked an entire room with nothing but their bare hands."

"Hohoho, is that so? I bet Mary was delighted to have such energetic kids with her."

"Sounds like another job for Shiro-san."

"I almost feel sorry for the poor thing… always cleaning up our mess."

"If she would charge more for repair jobs, we'd all go broke within a week."

"Yeah, such a sweetheart, that Shiro-san…"

The women (finally) fell silent as the unmistakable sound of a train whistle was heard on the platform.

"How in the world is this possible!" Gray exclaimed.

"What do you mean, dear boy? Trains are generally accepted to arrive at stations, you know." One of the women teased him.

"But… the rails, they were broken yesterday. We couldn't take the train!" Gray explained.

"Oh, that. Shiro-san fixed them first this morning." She explained.

"The poor thing got up at 5 for this job, so the morning train would be able to arrive on time." Another woman joined in the conversation.

The three mages jaw-dropped.

"_I guess there really is no such thing as 'impossible' for this guy…"_ They all thought.

They watched as the train came to a stop next to the platform. The driver descended from the locomotive and led the women to astorage wagon. He opened the metal slide doors and unloaded several wooden crates for them. He handed the ladies some papers to sign, before climbing back into his vehicle and resuming his journey.

The women noticed the confused looks on Gray, Lucy and Happy's faces and explained how they receive all their provisions by train, since there wasn't any shop in the village. The three of them offered to help the women carry back their load.

.

Pinoki town (Mary's Inn)

It was only a short walk from the train station back to Mary's Inn. Apparently this is where the delivered provisions are gathered and distributed to the entire town. It didn't take long before Natsu, Erza and the other men had returned as well. The sled with the car wreck was waiting outside the inn.

"William, take this." Mary handed the man a rather small crate. "These are for Shiro. Why don't you take the kids and their car there right now?"

"Hai. I hope there'll be a large pint of delicious ale waiting for me when I get back." William winked, trying to bait Koya again. But the man was too busy arranging everyone's deliveries to take notice of it.

The four teenagers were soon pulling the sled through the village by themselves, which proved to be quite a difficult job actually. Happy was floating around them, cheering them on.

"Why don't you help pulling this thing instead of making such a racket?" Lucy shouted at the creature.

"But Lucy, I'm just a small neko _(cat)_. What difference would I make?" Happy tried to sound innocent.

"And how about you? You could help pulling this monstrosity as well!" Lucy targeted William, who was leading the way, only carrying the small wooden crate of deliveries.

"Why? You guys are doing such a great job on your own." He grinned.

"Evil…" Lucy sighed.

It was only a short distance to Shiro's place, though it seemed like a 5-hour hike when you have to pull a magic four-wheeler with you. Before William even had the chance to knock at the front door, it swung open, hitting the man square in the face and making him fall over. The crate he held hit the snowy ground and scattered to pieces, its contents spreading in every direction.

"_You __so__ deserved that!"_ Lucy thought and grinned widely.

"Oh god, I'm sorry William. I didn't see you there!" A tall young man stepped outside. He held out his long arm to help the unfortunate man from the ground. The boy was extremely tall; he easily towered above every one of them. On top of that (no pun intended) his skin was slightly tanned and his bare arms revealed he was quite muscled. His face had some soft features, giving him a very kind appearance.

"Who are your friends?" The young man asked, his voice was very soft.

"Some mages from the city, they…" William started.

"Shiro-san, I presume. The villagers told us you're able to repair our vehicle." Erza interrupted him and pointed to the sled behind her. Her voice was stern, as always, and intimidated the young man quite a bit. He tried to say something, but didn't get the chance to do so as the redhead continued.

"We arrived yesterday at the village, but we had an accident with our magic four-wheeler. As you can see it's damaged pretty badly. Do you think you can fix it?" Erza asked.

"Ah… I-I'm glad you brought it here, but I'm afraid you got the wrong person. I'm not Shiro-sama." The guy apologized nervously.

"_-sama?"_ Lucy asked herself.

At this point, a young girl peeked through the door.

Gray was shocked as soon as he saw her.

"Ul…" he whispered silently.

...

* * *

><p>Yay! Another chapter. (Thank you Alice for beta-ing!)<p>

Technically I didn't lie about my OC being (finally) featured in this chapter, but don't worry... she'll be introduced properly in the beginning of the next chapter. I'd also like to share a concept drawing on Shiro-chan and Kume-kun as they appear in this chapter: imgur(dot)com/kUWcS(dot)png

If you got some time to spare, please review? You have no idea how happy it makes me to find a review notice in my inbox! ^^


	5. Chapter 4

I had this update planned a little sooner than this, but I fell very ill a few days ago. I've been bedridden for the past 3 days, but I'm finally getting better.  
>Anyway, I hope you'll enjoy this chapter.<p>

A special thank you for Alice for beta-ing. ^^

* * *

><p>An unexpectedly young girl stepped over the threshold of the small wooden house… She wasn't very small, rather average height actually, though compared to the other youth who exited from the house earlier everyone seemed to be midget. Her body gave the impression of an independent your woman, she had broad shoulders and hips, her dark hair was cut rather short and framed her little face graciously. Her face expression and her downright clumsy posture on the other hand were only contradicting this image. The most remarkable aspect of her appearance was that she looked just like…<p>

"Ul…" Gray almost breathed the name.

No one seemed to notice Gray's observation, the others were still processing the fact that the girl they were facing was the renowned Shiro-san who repaired… practically everything!

"_Did he just say…?"_ The girl's gaze lingered another moment on Gray.

"Shiro-chan! Good thing you're home, these kids want you to take a look at their vehicle. It's quite wreckage, though." Everyone snapped out of their awkward silence when William opened his mouth.

"Ano… Shiro-sama…" The giant boy tried to catch her attention.

"Ah… Kume-kun." Shiro's thoughts returned back to the present. "What's going on here?"

"Ah, well…" He started, while pointing towards the sled.

"Repair job" The elder villager interrupted. "I also came to deliver your provisions for this week, but I'm afraid I dropped them." He smiled apologetically while gesturing to the food on the ground.

"Oh…" She took a look at her ordered food, which was scattered in a 2 meter radius around them. "That's okay. Thank you William, for bringing it all the way here. I believe there's a tasty treat for you waiting back at the inn?" She shot the man a gently smile while tilting her head slightly to the left.

"_Moe…"_ Lucy scorned silently. Secretly she was a little jealous of the cuteness this girl was radiating, though she would never admit this to anyone!

"Kume-kun, why don't you give this crate a try?" The dark haired girl directed her question to the tall youth while pointing at the broken pieces of wood in the snow.

"H-hai!" He stammered in reply.

The team of Fairy Tail wizards didn't quite understand what was going on, but they decided to just hold their tongues and watch while the boy crouched down near the broken crate. He held out both of his arms above the debris, closed his eyes and took a deep breath. After a few seconds of deep concentration a white magic seal erupted from his hands. All of a sudden the chunks of wood, which were still all over the place, started shaking before they were slightly elevated into the air. The pieces were soon floating around in a vortex-like motion while the scattered contents of the parcel were slowly rolling back to where they came from. When all the food had gathered in one place by itself, the wooden plates miraculously glued themselves back together and crate was reassembled into its original state.

The group of mages couldn't quite believe what they just witnessed. They stood there for a few seconds, entranced and their mouths wide open gasping in astonishment.

"HOW THE HELL DID IT DO THAT?" Natsu was the first to speak up. He crouched down near the 'new' crate and started poking it, as if he couldn't quite believe it was real.

Soon the air was filled with a mix of exclamations of amazement and praise. Kume-kun rose back on his feet, scratching the back of his head nervously. He wasn't used to getting this much attention.

"Amazing! How did you manage this?" Erza asked the him.

"I-I'm not quite sure myself." He confessed silently.

"This is a rare kind of… ehm… repairing magic." Shiro quickly butted into their conversation. "It's a quite difficult form of magic; I thought this was a good opportunity to let Kume-kun have some practice." She added, her voice suddenly sounded a bit nervous.

"So, what can I do for you?" She continued, glancing over at the wrecked four-wheeler the gang brought.

They explained (once again) how the four mages got to Pinoki and how they wrecked their vehicle. After they pushed the sled to the back of the house, where Shiro's workshop was, she invited them inside for a cup of hot cocoa. Lucy, who loathed the cold weather outside, quickly took her up on her offer and forced her team to join in. William on the other hand chose to return to the inn, to claim his well-deserved ale.

"Kind of ironic for us to meet mages who are able repair stuff instead of breaking it." Lucy sighed happily while she warmed her hands at her hot cup.

"I guess I'll take that as a compliment… ehm… I think I didn't catch your names yet." Shiro smiled gently.

"I'm Lucy!" She replied.

"Erza." The armoured mage stated when Shiro also handed her a mug. "It would certainly be useful to have one or two mages like you back at the guild."

"Oh? Why's that?" The girl put two final cups of cocoa on the table in front of the 2 males.

"Because this flame head here always ends up destroying everything no matter how simple the mission is." The ice mage jerked his head in Natsu's direction.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean, ice block!" The dragon slayer already jumped out of his seat, his hands wrapped in fire.

"You know darn well what I mean by that, ahou _(idiot)_" Gray tried to remain cool, leaning back in his chair and folding his arms. It only served to provoke Natsu even further. The pink haired boy had already launched himself over the table to deliver his rival a good punch in the face, but midair he was intercepted by Erza's strong hand, which dragged him back to his seat.

"And these two are Natsu and Gray. I'll apologize already in case they'll break anything." Even though she spoke with a neutral voice, it sounded like a threat the boys' ears.

"_G-gray? … Could it be?"_

The ice mage raised an eyebrow when he found the Ul-lookalike staring at him again.

"_Nonono… I can't jump to conclusions just yet… this is just a coincidence!"_

Before another awkward silence was falling on the group again, Kume-kun tried to make her snap out of it by gently nudging her with his elbow and holding out her cup of cocoa. But it was Happy who successfully broke the silence.

"She llllllikes you!" He chirped.

Shiro was heavily shaking her head in order to clear the thought out of her mind. She gratefully took her cup and settled down on a free chair.

"Shiro-chan, can you teach Natsu repair magic?" The blue creature asked out of the blue. (no pun intended)

"I find the idea of Natsu repairing things is kind of funny." Lucy giggled.

"What's that supposed to mean?" The fire mage wasn't amused.

"It would be very ironic, Natsu. You usually end up breaking everything." Erza backed her up. Even Gray couldn't hold back a little chuckle.

"I don't want to hear anything from you!" Natsu warmed him, pointing his index finger, out of which a little flame erupted.

"I'm afraid that would be very difficult." Shiro joined in the giggling. "You see, Kume-kun has been training this magic for 2 years now and that crate he repaired earlier is one of his best achievements yet."

The tall youth received another round of praising for his earlier accomplishment, making his cheeks turn a slight shade of pink. He really was shy around strangers.

"T-thank you. B-but Shiro-sama is much better than I am." He tried to escape from the center of attention.

"How many times have I asked you not to call me Shiro-sama, Kume-kun?" She sighed.

"B-but…Shiro-sama." He protested.

"Shiro-chan!" She corrected.

"I can't address my shisho _(master/teacher)_ like that!" Kume-kun's voice was getting to sound desperate.

Shiro didn't bother to argue any further, they've went over this a million times before anyway. She sighed and took a sip of her beverage. Natsu was still pointing his burning finger in Gray's direction. The dark haired girl didn't have much contact with other mages since she lived in this remote village, so the fire mage honestly piqued her interest.

"Speaking of magic… I see you're a fire mage, is that also creation magic?" She leaned a bit closer to Natsu's hand to try and feel if the tiny flame really emitted any heat.

"…_also?" _Gray eyed her suspiciously when she mentioned 'creation magic'.

"Theh… I'm a dragon slayer. This is fire dragon slayer magic." The girl was looking at him with great interest as he wrapped his entire hand in fire again.

"I'm a celestial mage!" Lucy all but literally pushed Natsu away to take her own place in the spotlight.

"I don't think I've ever heard of that." Shiro admitted shyly.

"In that case, I'll show you!" She quickly rose to her feet and grabbed one of the keys on her keychain. "Open a gate of the Canis Minor! Nikolas!"

Shiro stared a moment at the creature which was summoned in front of her, not exactly knowing what it was. "Now what?" She asked, while she prodded its head gently with her finger.

"This is a celestial spirit, although a low level one. I can summon different spirits with different keys and they fight for me." The blonde explained.

Next up was Erza, she really surprised the 2 repair-mages with her re-quip abilities. Shiro claimed to be fond of swords and other weapons, to everybody's surprise, and made the redhead show off several pieces of weaponry before she was satisfied.

"How about you?" She asked Gray.

"Ice magic." Came the curt reply.

"Ice?" She gaped at him.

"_Maybe… this isn't such a coincidence… I… I have to make sure of it!"_

"Show me!" Her eyes lit up.

Gray was seriously getting annoyed at how much this girl was staring at him. He sighed slightly and shifted in his seat to raise his arms. The clapped his hands together and when he opened them, he was holding an ice sculpture of Fairy Tail's guild logo. Shiro looked at it for a while, she didn't seem satisfied.

"That's pretty, but how do you fight with that… you throw it at your enemies?" Everyone was surprised at the sarcasm in her voice, even Kume-kun, though Natsu couldn't help bursting into laughter. She seemed very out of character all of a sudden. Gray just felt insulted. First he did actually throw the sculpture at Natsu, for which he was rewarded with a scowl. Clearly irritated, he stood up and took his combat stance, holding his one hand clenched against the other.

"Ice make: lance!" he shouted. A light blue magic seal appeared out of which a bundle of 10 lances erupted. Because he was already slightly pissed the entire morning, Gray didn't consider controlling his attack so he (accidentally?) took down a piece of Shiro's wall. Only after the dust cleared he realized he was wrecking up her home. He muttered a quiet 'Gomen' _(sorry)_ and sat back down in his chair, head bent down to hide his shame.

"_So it is him… I found one of them… finally!"_

The ice mage looked up from under his bangs, the girl seemed surprisingly happy he just destroyed part of her house. Erza didn't waste a moment to start lecturing him while Natsu sat back and smirked. So far for this 'flame head' who's always responsible for trashing the place. Shiro ignored the ruckus the Fairy Tail mages were making and walked over to the shattered wall. She raised one of her hands which formed a white magic seal. Instantly the debris was soaring through the air, putting itself back together like a giant puzzle. It didn't take seconds before the wall was restored as if nothing had happened.

Only when the girl had taken back her place at the table, the gang realized what happened en fell silent. Natsu and Lucy switched gazes back and forth between Shiro and the wall she just repaired, unable to believe how she managed to do that. Gray muttered another apology while Erza sent him another scolding glare.

"I told you Shiro-sama is much better than me." Kume-kun noted.

"You mentioned something about her being your teacher before!" Lucy noticed.

"That's right, I'm teaching him this magic." She smiled gently, tilting her head.

"Are there more mages who possess this power?" Erza asked.

"In this village, you mean? I think I'm safe in assuming we're the only ones." She kept on smiling.

"I see… I'd like to ask some questions about the wyverns which are attacking this village, if that's ok." The knight tried to change the topic.

"Go right ahead." The blue haired girl used her trademark smile and head tilting combo again.

"When did these attacks first started?" Erza asked.

"Hmmm… it must be about 4 months ago by now."

"Do you think the villagers could have done anything to anger the monsters?"

"Not that I know of. Most people never even leave the village."

"Has anything happened to this village the past few months, except for the wyvern attacks?"

"Well… about half a year ago Mr. and Mrs. Kitamura came to Pinoki and opened the new onsen _(bath house)_. I don't really see how that would anger monsters, but we had a slight increase of visitors because of the new facility… maybe one of the tourists might have done something to upset them."

"Whaa~ An onsen! Let's have a bath later!" Lucy didn't even listen to the rest of the story once she learned there were hot springs in the village.

"Did you notice any suspicious behavior among these visitors?" Erza ignored the blonde.

Shiro didn't reply immediately to the question, instead she stared at the tabletop and fidgeted with her suspenders of her overall.

"I'm not quite sure if I should tell you this… but lately I've get the feeling I'm being watched." Her voice was trembling slightly. "I didn't actually see anything or anyone yet, but there are times I could swear there was someone watching from the shadows…"

Kume-kun shot up and placed his hands on her shoulders in a protective way.

"Why didn't you tell me anything about this?"

"I-I'm sorry Kume-kun, I didn't want you to worry about me." She smiled at him apologetically.

"Please let me accompany you at all times from now on!" The boy urged.

"Really, Kume-kun, that's not necessary." She took hold of his hands and removed them from her shoulders.

"At least I can protect you if I'm with you. If something were to happen to you, I'd never forgive myself! "

"Then what where all that hand-to-hand and sword training for? I'm sure I can defend myself, Kume-kun. You know I'm not half bad with a stick." She chuckled a bit to try and lighten the mood.

"But what if they're mages? You wouldn't stand a chance!"

"What do you mean she wouldn't stand a chance, I though you said she was a better mage than you were, Kume-kun?" Lucy butted into their conversation.

"It's true she's a better at this repair magic than me, but this skill is useless in combat. I'm also a lightning mage, so I can stand my ground in a fight." The tall youth explained.

"Whoa~ lightning! Just like Laxus! Hey, let's have a fight!" Natsu jumped up from his seat.

Erza grabbed him by his scarf and pulled him back to his chair. The pink haired mage received a glare which told him to be silent.

"When did you start noticing these… stalkers?" Erza inquired.

"About two months ago, I'm not sure if they're always there or if they were there before, I only notice them occasionally." Shiro explained.

"Back to the wyverns, do they attack the village frequently? And what are their attacks like?"

"The attacks are rather erratic. They mostly go around destroying buildings and if they can find food they'll steal it. They mostly attack at night and they've never attacked a human yet, though that might be because we hide ourselves in cellars in the night-time."

"Did the village try to fight back?"

"Oh no! We wouldn't stand a chance against the beasts. There are only 3 mages who are able to fight in the entire village and honestly, they're not that strong either, no offence Kume-kun." She quickly turned around to shoot him another apologetic smile.

"None taken." He reassured her.

"I see…" The redhead stood up from her seat. "I propose we go check out the area to look for any clues on this case.

"Do we have to~?" Lucy moaned.

"Yes we do" Erza stated coolly.

Shiro hooked her arm under Lucy's to pull her up from her chair.

"I'll repair your vehicle while you guys are out there investigating and how about we all hit the onsen after you're done? Kitamura-san always lets me in for free because I keep repairing the baths for free, I hope he won't mind if I bring along some company."

This convinced the stellar mage. They received directions from Shiro-chan to where the wyvern's nest would most likely be, the girl claimed to enjoy morning walks in the snow and therefor she knew about the environment. Soon the team was on their way for a walk around the village, led by Lucy who was setting a face pace. The sooner the walk was over, the sooner they could enjoy the hot springs!

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